Can Green Design Be Good Design?

March 10, 2009

The field of architecture is experiencing a design
crisis, with clients ranging from private owners to cities demanding
that architects prioritize sustainability above all else—as if design
itself were an obnoxious carbon-emitter. This is partly because high
designers and the so-called "starchitects," who fear that new methods
and materials might not comport with long-established styles, are not
taking the lead on sustainability issues, leaving green innovation to
younger firms with fewer resources. Both well-known firms and
up-and-comers lack experience in working with new, often expensive
green materials, which has forced many designers to depend greatly on
singular and design-restrictive tactics such as "passive
design"—essentially, lots of space and windows—to achieve
sustainability goals.

But with all due respect, Capps must not look at many of today's
highest-profile buildings. Otherwise, he'd have noted Renzo Piano's
sublime California Academy of Sciences,
one of last year's most widely praised buildings and the winner of a
platinum rating from the Leadership in Energy and Design (LEED)
standard system—the highest rating from the world's leading eco-rating
program. Piano is also, by the way, among the starriest of the
starchitects. The Cal Academy is proof positive that an established
career and good design are no impediments to sustainable design.

The list goes on. Kieran Timberlake's Yale Sculpture Building (pictured)? LEED Platinum. James Polshek's Clinton library?
Platinum. Sir Norman Foster's 30 St. Mary Axe in London—aka the
Gherkin—incorporates an innovative natural air-flow system that
significantly cuts down on energy use. All great buildings, all
eco-friendly. Or take any of the recent work by Antoine Predock or Thom
Mayne—gray hairs both, but also both recognized leaders in
environmental design.

But more to the point, Capps fails to show—outside of a few sniping
quotes from Stefan Behnisch—that green design is locked in an "awkward
stage." I've toured a lot of new, LEED-certified buildings in recent
months—just yesterday I was at David Adjaye's Gold-certified Museum of Contemporary Art
in Denver—and I've yet to see a tradeoff between good design and green
design. Adjaye's museum, like Piano's Cal Academy, has been uniformly
praised for its use of space and light; that innovative use of light
also maximizes the amount of indirect sun in the galleries,
dramatically reducing the need for artificial lighting.

Obviously, we can debate the aesthetic merits of Piano's Academy or
Adjaye's museum. But these are inarguably architects of the highest
caliber and celebrity, working on the cutting edge of both design and
sustainability. Yes, there are some bad buildings out there. And yes,
some of them are built to the highest sustainable standards. But
there's no causal link between the two.